278 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 



it is dilificult to determine which particular shale bed along the eastern 

 slope of the Flint Hills corresponds to the Lawrence shales, but there 

 is every reason for believing that they extend that far, making their 

 limits at least from Leavenworth to the s^uth line of the state some- 

 where within the Flint Hills area. 



Above the Lajvrence shales the Oread limestones are found. These 

 consist of two distinct systems separated by from 14 to 20 feet of 

 shales. To the southwest they have not been fully correlated with 

 the rocks in the Flint Hills area, but they are known to pass beyond 

 the Neosho river. To the northeast they extend to Leavenworth, 

 and from paleontologic evidence Mr. Bennett is inclined to think that 

 the upper one of the two systems is identical with the heavy limestone 

 system ct Plattsburg, Missouri. 



Above the Oread limestone is a bed of shale a little more than 60 

 feet thick, after which come the three Lecompton limestones exposed 

 on the hill top south of Lecompton. They are only a few feet thick 

 and are separated by thin shale beds. Above them is another shale 

 bed about 75 feet thick, the two thin limestones exposed at Tecumseh, 

 another shale bed 50 or 60 feet thick, and then the three limestone 

 systems which appear near Topeka. These are of little interest 

 except from their geographic position. Above them lies another 

 shale bed 50 feet thick, at the top of which lies the Topeka coal, a 

 seam about 11 inches thick which has been mined in different places. 

 The coal is immediately overlaid by two thin limestone beds sepa- 

 rated by less than 3 feet of shale. Above the limestone is the Osage 

 City shale more than 100 feet thick, at the top of which lies the 

 Osage coal, averaging 18 or 20 inches thick. 



The Osage coal is interesting on account of its position. It is 

 about 2200 feet above the base of the Lower Coal Measures, and 

 fully 120 miles from the nearest exposures of the Mississippian rocks. 

 The character of the coal, the shale, and the included sandstones 

 indicate that all these deposits were formed in marginal areas, al- 

 though so far removed vertically and horizontally from the original 

 marginal seas which existed at the beginning of Coal Measure time. 



Above the Osage coal is a thin limestone system superseded in 

 turn by the Burlingame shales, a body about 150 feet thick in the 

 vicinity of Burlingame, and possibly more in places. Both the Bur- 

 lingame and Osage City shales extend for long distances to the 

 southwest and northeast, and are important landmarks in stratigraphy. 



From the Burlingame shales to the Cottonwood Falls limestone, a 

 distance of about 550 feet, there is a succession of thin limestone 

 systems averaging less than 6 feet thick alternating with shale beds of 

 from 25 feet to 75 feet in thickness. The conditions are favorable 



